Rome football derby ends in bitter disputes

Roma lit the touch paper under their Serie A title bid by winning 2-0 away to leaders Lazio in the Rome derby but the outcome was marred by bitter arguing after the game.

Lazio are now just two points ahead of second-placed AC Milan, who won 3-2 at rock-bottom Bari, following only their second defeat of the season.

Roma notched their first away success of the campaign – although admittedly in the Stadio Olimpico ground they share with their city rivals – and move to seven points off top.

But following penalties converted by Marco Borriello and Mirko Vucinic, Lazio’s players and coach Edy Reja were left furious.

“For the last two years we’ve been victims of episodes that went against us (in the derby),” complained Christian Brocchi, who was booked late on for protesting the second penalty award.

“Referees, like us, can make mistakes but it’s not possible to continue like this.

“We were punished by (referee Emidio) Morganti and we don’t deserve this kind of treatment.”

After Lazio were denied a penalty when Stefano Mauri went down in the box, Brocchi also got invovled in a furious argument with Roma coach Claudio Ranieri, for which he apologised.

“I was wrong and I want to apologise to him (Ranieri) for the words I used,” added the combattive midfielder.

“Of course we didn’t just lose due to this episode (the Mauri incident) and now we have to be strong and set off again.”

Reja for his part listed off a whole sequence of decisions he felt went against his team.

“My players are saying, that’s enough, you can’t play against 12,” he said.

“The game was decided by certain episodes. In the previous days Roma were complaining that they never got any decisions, well they can’t do that now.

“We were denied a penalty at 1-0, (John Arne) Riise fouled Mauri.

“For the penalty for 2-0 (Julio) Baptista had already fouled (Guglielmo) Stendardo, which should have been given, and then Simplicio handled (in the area) near the end.”

Goalscorer Vucinic said you have to play to the decisions the referee gives.

“It’s a penalty when the ref blows his whistle,” he said.

“I’ve celebrated the birth of my son (Aleksandar) in the best way possible.”

And Vucinic hopes that the win will now help them continue their climb up the table.

“I hope this game will signify the turning point for us because we’ve been doing well for a while now.

“The important thing is to continue on this path, this win could give us a push and we hope to keep going.”

Ranieri reacted angrily when told of Lazio’s claims.

“I don’t understand what they’re complaining about, in the first half we were denied a valid goal,” he said.

“If Lazio lost because of the referee then that will only please Roma fans even more, now they will be lapping it up like the rich.

“As for the rest I would say that given the trend of the game in terms of free-kicks, there were many penalties in our favour.

“Hence I think the referee used the same evaluation criteria.

“The referee managed to see the hair that was beyond the last defender in the offside for our goal that was ruled out but on the pseudo-penalty for Lazio he didn’t manage to see that the whole of (Andre) Dias’s body was in an offside position.”